Star Trek S1 Intro Narration Variation?

I've been told recently the first two episodes of season 1 of TOS, in order of original broadcast (these being "The Man Trap" and "Charlie X"), had the familiar intro but with a slightly different version of the narration of William Shatner than what we were used to hearing. These two, and three other episodes, all use the electric violin version of the theme music.

Usually, we hear him say:

But several editions before, it went...

The first edition of the narration to feature the last six words in the narration we're used to, went like this (suggested by Samuel Peeples):

Thus, I ask: what exactly did he say in his narration on these first two episodes (as originally seen on NBC), which differs from the common version?

~Ben

 

Perhaps @Harvey may have some insight on this.

Kor

 

The narration that we all know was finalized on August 10, 1966. Shatner recorded the narration on or shortly after that date, per memos at UCLA.

Regarding a different recording being used for "The Man Trap" and "Charlie X," I don't know anything about that. But the lines in it would have certainly been the same. The earlier versions of the narration were never recorded -- those were just working drafts as the refined the words.

 

Thank you all for the insight. I would love to hear the early S1 version even if he did in fact say the exact same words.

~Ben

 

Actually, there is an alternate version of Where No Man has Gone Before featuring different opening narration by Shatner. It can be seen in the Blu Ray TOS discs, or at this link at you tube:

 

Okay yes, there is a difference. Somewhere over the course of the first season, the narration changed - not in words, but in how Shatner says them.

I didn't go through every episode, just spot checked them. I used the original Paramount DVDs from 1999, which was the only home video release that even tried to restore some of the Network credits. They didn't do it right, so trying to pinpoint when they made the switch would be useless. There's no way to know if it was correct. However, I checked The Man Trap, The Naked Time and Squire of Gothos. Here he says "to seek out new life and new civil-eh-zations.."



Then, going to Operation -- Annihilate!, he says "to seek out new life and new civil-EYE-ZA-tions..."

There is also a second or so in between "space...the final frontier" in the first version. Later in the season, that interval is shorter, more urgent.


However, the words themselves never change.

 

It never ceases to amaze me regarding these slight audible differences in the way he enunciated his narration on season 1.

~Ben

 

Right. That’s the version prepared for the second pilot shown NBC, but it was never aired.

 

The aired version of WNMHGB (at least as far back as 70s syndication) had no narration at all.

 

This is why I would love if CBS/Paramount would have cared enough to restore the series to Night of Original Broadcast, with proper credits, music, sound mix and post credit logos. It would answer so many questions about the sound and when they actually switched from the first season Sandy Courage arrangement to the Steiner.

 

I take it Shatner just recorded several takes and somewhere along the line they decided to opt for a different take? I wonder who was responsible for ordering such a minute difference and the rationale behind it? I guess a lot of it revolves around Shatner's often quirky pronunciation (shades of "sabehtaage the system").

 

Could have been for pacing and urgency as well.

 

Ooh interesting! Is this voice work for TAS?

 

The sabehtaage session was for a computer game.

 

It's such a slippery slope that these companies go down when 'remastering'. The BBC recieved a lot of praise for their efforts to clean up the classic Doctor Who for DVD, but in several cases went one step too far in replacing title credits etc for the sake of consistency, but the power went to the heads of the restoration team at times and they started using the technology to correct perceived flaws, in the production when these "flaws" are just part of the rich history of what they made back then. It's homogenization of a product that was never originally consistent and, in some ways, removes some of the charm that comes from the oddities.

 

I agree, which is why I'm not asking for anything other than restoring the series to what it was originally, with the original music and sound mix, previews, and whatever network promos and bumpers still exist. I've never wanted any flaws cleaned up or effects redone. I get why they redid the effects. Fine. But the 50th blu-ray release was a very large missed opportunity to give the series the royal treatment along the lines of The Twilight Zone instead of the simple repackaging CBS put out there.

 

^^^
Everytime I see that my mind jumps to hearing: "STAR TREK... A QUIN MARTIN PRODUCTION..."

 

Some of the answer to this may lie in the music. In the complete series soundtrack recordings it is revealed that they rerecorded the music a couple of times during each season. It is possible that they used two different takes of Kirk's speech on some of the early episodes. But at this point I believe we can be pretty certain that the episodes were not touched following their broadcast. It is more likely that some have a false memory (I have one from Star Wars which I now know was never even an edit choice). As far as I know the episodes were prepared in production order (or the order they were finished) and left that way. The fact that Where No Man Has Gone Before has never had the opening narration and a completely different version of the theme (though the end credits of all of season 1 have the matching end theme) indicates that what is cleaned up and remastered for the Blu-ray (the original version not the redone special FX version) is how it was first seen on the original airdate. I believe that scan was also the first time the original negatives had been scanned rather than the master prints. The more green tone of the Command uniforms is a giveaway (the proper color is a yellowish-green avacado).

 

Well, let me see if I can shed a little light on the music changes since original airing…

When the series aired, the Alexander Courage electric violin theme was on the first batch of aired episodes. It was either the first 5, 7 or 10. Some people I’ve spoken to swear it was 5, Marc Cushman says 7 and Paramount said the first 10 in production order with the DVDs. Paramount is wrong. The Corbomite Maneuver did not have the first version of the theme and neither did Balance of Terror. They had the Steiner arrangement. Honestly, as much as it pains me, I’m gonna go with Cushman on this until Harvey or IndySolo can provide something more concrete.

At any rate, those episodes also had the electric violin theme over the end credits as well. They remained this way well into syndication.

Then in the mid-80’s, Paramount pulled Star Trek from the market for a time and restruck the prints from 35mm and sent them out on tape to stations across the country. They were pre-edited down to 45 minutes, although Phll Ferrand of the Nitpicker's Guides said a number of them were unedited, but I don't remember ever having uncut episodes from those prints until I got them on VHS. The first season episode credits were also standardized with the Fred Steiner arrangement – with the exception of Where No Man Has Gone Before. They kept the opening and closing themes intact – sans narration and sound effects in the opening. This is how Star Trek aired and was presented on home video until the late 90’s.

The DVDs were released in two episodes per volume batches in production order. The first ten episodes had the Courage arrangement of the opening theme. The Man Trap and Charlie X even had the “created by Gene Roddenberry” credit restored to the start and the closing credits were back in their original font. However, the end credit music was not restored and, once again, only Where No Man Has Gone Before had the Courage arrangement.

The Blu Rays are all over the map.

 

I'm grateful that they scanned the negatives and preserved the series in 1080p, but I don't think that's why the Kirk-Sulu-Chekov tunic turned green. I think CBS Digital deliberately biased that color toward green to fix something that wasn't broken.

The uniforms really were yellow-gold under bright studio lights or sunlight, and they really were green under dimmer indoor lighting, whether viewed in person or on film. It was due to a chemical peculiarity of the dye pigment. But CBS Digital decided "This means it's really green," and they altered the show's look electronically.